Why Social Media?
The power, promise, and potential of social media can no longer be denied. Billions of people use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to communicate, interact, and share experiences. Corporations, institutions, and even governments are on social media, and when investing in it, are seeing immediate returns on their investments. Social media has become the front line of communications for any organization – to the point where many suspect an organization that does not have social media.
Social media wears many different hats: it can function as a communications platform for events and initiatives, a public relations tool to improve the public perception of your organization and can serve to market your goals and agenda. A well-functioning, constantly updated, dynamic social media presence is the very definition of a “quick win.”
Its various “push” strategies advance diocesan messaging and news reporting, drive readers back to the website, and serve as a point-of-purchase resource to help promote special events. Social Media is a major new tool that offers unprecedented visibility, community and accountability in the communications mix.
Platform Basics
- Largest audience and easiest to grow on
- Has become a second website for organizations
- Good for targeting people already in the pews
- Great advertising system
- Only start if you have the ability to maintain it
- Great for breaking news, Best chance to go “viral”
- Highest organic reach but amongst the hardest to grow on
- Oftentimes the most “hostile” social media environment
- Highest initial upkeep, but little maintenance
- Hard to grow organically
- Not conducive to younger demographics
- Good for pictures and graphics, not news and events
Facebook has shifted towards an older demographic, with a heavy population of men and women from Generation X and older. Youth and young adults are certainly on Facebook but treat it more like a “website” and are more likely to spend time on their own profile than their newsfeed. That said, Facebook is by far the most active medium, and easiest to grow on. Facebook ads are also the least expensive and the most effective.
Twitter is decidedly geared toward the younger crowd and for interacting with other Catholic organizations. Given its dynamic nature and newsfeed centered experience, it requires significant maintenance and upkeep. Given that the user experience with Twitter is geared primarily through the News Feed feature, and depending on how many accounts a user follows, the volume can be significant. As such, in evangelizing, marketing, or communicating on Twitter, you are competing for space on a News Feed. Despite this, Twitter can be used to great advantage due to its fast-paced nature.
Instagram has emerged as a worthy compliment to Twitter and Facebook and has been on the scene as a viable marketing tool for a few years now. What was once a niche social media platform is now the place to highlight your most important picture(s) or video of the day. It is also a very young medium, geared toward the millennial generation. As of now, Instagram requires the least amount of social media legwork to post, but the most to gain followers. Many schools and parishes are not on Instagram yet, but given their target demographics, a hard look at Instagram is highly recommended.
Posting Best Practices
Before discussing best practices, it is important to know that a one-size-fits-all posting strategy does not work for everyone. These guidelines are meant to give you the basic information required to craft a personalized posting strategy, unique to your account, demographics, and the platform you are posting on.
Before Getting Started
Keep your posts relevant to your organization ONLY. Parish or school specific news, pictures, videos, and events should compose 95% of your social media posts. Notable exceptions would be sharing something from the Bishop, Diocese, or Holy Father (highly encouraged!) or something related to catholic education (for schools) or parish life (for parishes).
Politics are off limits for Diocesan social media accounts. You should refrain from endorsing candidates, endorsing political positions, and posting about divisive issues. Any account that posts about divisive or controversial topics will not be featured by the Diocese of Bridgeport’s accounts.
Refrain from posting irrelevant or redundant material. Do not use the organization’s account to promote something of your own, or content from other organizations.
Your goal is to get people to engage with your postings. Post content that others might be interested in commenting on or sharing with their friends. Post uplifting content that helps spiritually nourish those who view it!
What should you post?
A good social media content strategy features a mix of graphics, pictures, and videos with captivating and interactive captions. Though this may sound intimidating, videos and graphics are significantly easier to create with software like Canva (free, web based graphic creation), and iMovie (free Mac based software for videos).
In order to create compelling content that will incentivize your audience to come back to your page each day, it is recommend that you create weekly “segments” that are posted at the same day and time each week. For example, creating a weekly video series with the Pastor of your Parish, or posting a relevant quote from a Saint as a graphic every Wednesday. Get creative!
When should you post?
Frequency
- Minimum 1 post per day
- Maximum 2 posts per day evenly spaced
- Space out posts by AT LEAST 6 hours. Otherwise, you are cannibalizing your reach
Times
- A healthy posting schedule would be 9:00am and 8:30pm. Times are flexible
- Highest traffic online peaks between 7:30pm and 9:15pm at night
- Lowest traffic online (besides early morning hours) is 10:30am- 12:00pm, and 1:00pm-3:00pm
Dates
- Highest traffic is generally on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
- Lowest traffic days are Tuesday and Wednesday
- Friday evening is a surprisingly busy online time, but not for video. Use this for a graphic or picture with a short caption
Frequency
- 5-7 Tweets per day minimum. No maximum
- Live tweeting can get annoying, be strategic and space your tweets out
Times
- Similar to Facebook
- Highest traffic online peaks between 7:30pm and 9:15pm at night
- People check their Twitter feed at all times during the day, often further into the night (you can actually reach people late into the night and early morning hours given how the newsfeed algorithm works)
- Most trafficked Twitter times are early morning (wake up and scroll), lunchtime, and mid-late evening
Dates
- Twitter is active all 7 days of the week but is the least active medium for businesses during the weekend. You can either follow this trend or use the lack of other accounts tweeting to your advantage
Frequency
- 1 post per every two days minimum. 2 posts per day maximum (but do this very infrequently).
- Do not live post on Instagram
- Instagram is your highlight reel, so use it as such. You can’t go wrong with one strong posting per day
- People are very unforgiving about posting more than you should on Instagram
Times
- 8pm-10pm seems to be the highest trafficked time, and trends seem to suggest that people are even on Instagram into the night, with activity peaking at 1am on certain days
- 3-4pm is typically the best time to post during the day
- Instagram is your highlight reel, so use it as such. You can’t go wrong with one strong posting per day
- Posts have a long longevity and can generate likes long after they are posted
Dates
- The weekend and Mondays see more traffic than any other period of time
- Activity decreases throughout the week from Tuesday to Friday, increases Saturday and peaks Sunday and Monday
How should you post it?
Style: The style of any social media post should be positive, warm, upbeat, and informal. You want to “let your hair down,” so to speak. Posting a press release would be a bad practice. Instead, synthesize what you want to say to no more than a short paragraph. Personalize your tone. Give the organization a “persona.” Social media allows organizations to have a personality and to speak for themselves.
Formatting:One sentence to one paragraph for Facebook and Instagram. 280 characters for Twitter. Tag relevant accounts, register the location of the event, and include relevant hashtags! Try to avoid hashtags on Facebook. Use full sentences and words on Facebook, do not abbreviate. Abbreviations (used sporadically), are okay on Twitter.
